Edilio Borroni, PhD

Dr. Borroni studied Neuropharmacology at the University of Milan, Italy. His earlier postdoctoral stage was at the Institute for Pharmacological Research Mario Negri. In 1981 he moved to Gottingen, Germany and joined the Department of Neurobiology at the Max Plank Institute for Biophysics and Chemistry first as postdoc and then as group leader. Dr. Borroni’s research focused on the identification of molecular component of neuronal plasma membranes and synaptic vesicles. In 1990 he joined the CNS Pharmaceutical Research Department of Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland were I lead various projects aimed to identify novel treatments for psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. In 2007 he started a new biomarker group dedicated to the discovery and development of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) radiotracers that could help the clinical development of novel drugs. In collaboration with academic PET centers they developed novel PET radiotracers for brain transporters (GlyT-1), enzymes (PDE10a) and receptors (GABA–A receptor subtypes) and a tracer selective for Tau protein aggregates that is currently being used for clinical studies investigating Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.